Windsor's mayor is calling a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed against the city as "absolute nonsense."
"It's absolute nonsense," says Drew Dilkens.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, mayor Dilkens says the city will deny all of the allegations that have been levelled against the city, himself and certain city councillors.
"Listen I practiced labour and employment law before becoming mayor so I get the process here, and we're in this legal process, the city is going to deny all of these allegations," says Dilkens. "We will have a very robust defence that talks about the allegations that were levelled against the city and me and certain members of city council and we'll go through that process."
As AM800 news reported Monday morning, former Commissioner of Infrastructure Services Chris Nepszy filed a lawsuit last week after negotiations failed to reach an agreement on a severance package.
Nepszy was let go in November 2023 in what the city called 'a strategic realignment of its organizational structure.'
His lawyer Howard Levitt says his client contends in the lawsuit that he was always transparent and acted with integrity in his position, and there were no criticisms of his performance.
Dilkens says he's not worried about any of the allegations.
"My job and the hard part of my job is making sure we got the right people, in the right place at the right time to deliver for the city and sometimes you'll have to make tough decisions but I will never apologize for trying to get the right people in the right place to deliver on the trajectory of growth that we have in front of us," says Dilkens. "It's about delivering for our residents and I will never ever apologize for that but it does involve making some difficult decision and in this particular regard whether you like doing it or not, you got to make sure you got the right people in the right place at the right time and this unfortunate lawsuit, we will defend ourselves accordingly and that defence will be public as well."
Dilkens says there is no corruption at city hall.
"None of that exists and these are all spurious allegations designed to try and embarrass, I'm not embarrassed, I'm not embarrassed about anything that I've done at city hall," says Dilkens.
Dilkens used strong mayor powers to remove Nepszy and Shelby Askin-Hager, the commissioner of Legal and Legislative Services, from their positions with the corporation.
As part of strong mayor powers granted by the province under the Municipal Act, the mayor has the power to appoint and dismiss the chief administrative officer as well as various senior managers.
None of the allegations contained in the claim have been tested in court.
Nepszy is seeking close to $1.55-million from the city.
He took the job with the City of Windsor in September 2021 after serving as the chief administrative officer for the Town of Essex.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens responds to the allegations of corruption at city hall and says they are nonsense
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